The present invention relates generally to knives, and more particularly to a folding pocket knife with a safety lock to hold a blade of the knife in a closed position. The safety lock is moveably mounted on a handle of the knife, and may slide to a locking position, in which the safety lock prevents the blade from opening out of the handle by obstructing the path of the blade as the blade is urged from a closed position in the handle to an open position out of the handle. The safety lock also may slide away from the locking position, in which the safety lock does not obstruct the path of the blade so that the blade may freely move from the closed position to an open position.
This safety lock is particularly useful in knives having an assisted opening mechanism, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,802,722, 5,815,927, and 6,145,202, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. An understanding of some prior locking mechanisms for knives also may be obtained from U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,189,005, 1,743,022, 4,133,106, 4,451,982, 4,947,552, 4,974,323, 4,979,301, 5,060,379, 5,092,045, 5,293,690, 5,647,129, and 5,822,866, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The advantages of the present invention will be understood more readily after a consideration of the drawings and the Detailed Description.